


chemistry

by RiiasShorts



Series: Journey to the Center of My Heart [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha Ben Solo, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Rey (Star Wars), Omega Rose Tico, Rey & Rose Tico Are Best Friends, Rose is a menace, part of a textfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 09:53:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiiasShorts/pseuds/RiiasShorts
Summary: this is parts 154-158 of my twitter fic, "journey to the center of my heart" which is linked in the author's note!
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey & Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Journey to the Center of My Heart [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1736482
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	chemistry

**Author's Note:**

> read the textfic [here](https://twitter.com/riiasshorts/status/1252711981716508672?s=20)

The phone rings. For a second, Ben is afraid that Rose is just fucking with him and isn’t actually going to pick up.

It connects.

“Ben?”

Rose’s voice isn’t what he was expecting. He’s not quite sure what he  _ was _ expecting, to be fair, but the low yet feminine voice on the other end of the line isn’t it. It makes him curious to see what she looks like.

“Hey, Rose,” he responds.

“Hi. So, listen, I talked to Rey, and--”

He cuts her off, anticipating her words. “I’m so sorry. I know I said all of the wrong things to her. I didn’t mean to--”

She, in turn, cuts  _ him _ off. “That’s not why I called.”

Now  _ that… _ that, he was not expecting.

“Oh.”

She giggles, and Ben’s brain goes to two very different places at once:

  1. Her giggle is, frankly, adorable.
  2. If she’s laughing, that means she’s probably not upset with him. At least not too much.



“Yeah. So, I’ve been talking to Rey,” she tells him, getting right to business.

Ben nods. “I figured. I’m glad she has you.”

“Me too, but I  _ am _ an ocean away and five hours ahead, so there’s only so much I can do.” 

The woman has a point.

“Anyway,” Rose continues, “she told me something that I want to tell you. But before I do, I want you to know that, A, she told me I could call you and talk to you about this, and, B, I don’t care how much of an alpha you are, I will  _ destroy _ you if you hurt her in any way, shape or form. Unless it’s consensual.”

Goddamn, talk about a rollercoaster of a sentence. “Okay.”

“You got all that?” Rose clarifies. At least she knows she just dumped a  _ whole bunch _ on him.

Thinking back on what she said, Ben hums. “She’s okay with you telling me, and if I hurt her, you’ll kill me.”

“Destroy. I’ll  _ destroy _ you.”

“Ah. My bad,” Ben plays along, cracking a smile.

Rose “humphs” playfully, then laughs. 

“So,” Ben probes, “what did you need to talk to me about?”

She seems to regain focus. “Right! So, Rey’s been really… torn, I guess is a good way to put it, lately. Because she’s into you, I think you know that, but she also really wants to keep things professional. And part of that is because she’s convinced that whatever happens between you two will end badly.”

“Why--,” Ben starts, but Rose shushes him.

“Just listen. She’s had a lot of run-ins with shitty alphas in the past. Most of her relationships have been with betas. And so those almost always have taken a bad turn around the time of her heat. I’m sure you can understand why.”

He can. It’s common knowledge that an omega’s sex drive during a heat is unparalleled, except by an alpha in rut. It’s pure biology; alphas and omegas are meant to go through their heats and ruts together, when their bodies are more fertile and more driven to fuck. The basic instinctual hardwiring present in both designations has kept humanity alive during times when the population would have, if it had been otherwise, taken nosedives. 

Betas, on the other hand, are the genetic outliers in the mating cycle. With their lack of a heat or rut or other equivalent, their sex drives remain constant. Betas with dicks often don’t have the refractory period to keep up with omegas, especially in heat. Even betas with traditionally-female genitalia find themselves worn out, and, when they’re with another vagina’ed omega, they often don’t have the  _ hardware _ to satiate the intense need their omega partners are overcome by.

And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of instinctual behaviors, like an alpha’s need to provide food and water for their omegas, even when their primary focus is on a decidedly different part of their partner’s body - the one focused on dick instead of sustenance. Beta-omega couples are statistically more likely to be hospitalized after heats due to malnutrition or dehydration. 

So yeah, he gets why her prior relationships with betas were, uh,  _ strained _ around the time of Rey’s heats.

Only then does it click.

“Wait, Rose?” Ben calls, trying but failing to connect the dots.

She hums.

The gears in his brain are still turning. “Rey’s not supposed to have a heat for… months.”

“Yep.”

He’s still not getting it. “So why is she having one now?”

Thinking back, he calculates how long they’ve been sharing a living space. He couldn’t have set off her heat, right? That would have happened at the beginning, if it was going to happen at all. Right?

“Huh. I just kind of assumed it was a breakthrough heat. Good question, though.”

Well that’s disconcerting. He thought for sure Rose would know.

“Anyways,” Rose re-focuses, “her heats have never been good. Not with partners, not without. She didn’t pack some, um,  _ things _ she would normally need. So she was going to just tough it out, but I talked with her.

“Basically, from what she’s told me, it seems that there’s kind of an offer in the air, right? That you’d be open to helping her?”

Ben scoffs. “Rose, I… it’s not a matter of being open, even. I just want to help her.”

“As a friend?”

He snorts. “I’ve been kissing her for weeks. No, not as a friend.”

It’s Rose’s turn to laugh. “Fair point.”

“So, um,” Ben starts, unsure how to ask his question, “what is it you want to tell me?”

Rose, to her credit, takes it in stride. “Right, so there’s this open offer to help her, and she wants to take you up on it.”

Ben’s breath catches in his chest. God, that’s all he wants right now, and if Rose is saying what he thinks she’s saying, then--

“But she won’t let herself.”

Oh.

A crushing weight lands on his sternum, and his body deflates. The ego his alpha had built up from Rose’s words disappears, and he sulks despite himself.

He decides to cut his losses. “Okay, well, thanks for explaining, Rose, I--”

“No!” Rose cuts him off by practically shouting into her phone. “I mean, no, don’t go because I’m not finished.”

Yet again, his bubble bursts. The rejection apparent earlier had turned him cold, but now a glimmer of hope is rising.

“As long as I’ve known Rey, she’s been incredibly defensive,” Rose explains, her storytelling voice low and hypnotic, “and that’s for a variety of reasons. I’m leaving that to her to explain. But basically, she lets very few people in. A lot of that is because she thinks everyone is going to leave.”

As Rose talks, Ben’s heart breaks. The woman’s emotional words take a chisel to his beating heart and crack it clean open until it’s bleeding for Rey, the strong, flawed, hurt woman that she is. Hearing Rose’s story makes Ben want to run to Rey, to gather her in his arms and shield her from everything bad that could and has ever happened to her. Ever since that first car ride, there was something tying them together. For months now, they’ve been ignoring it. Rey especially has resisted the pull of that red string of fate, but Ben’s felt it this whole time. He’s allowed himself to get reeled in closer and closer to this fallen angel, and he’s willing to wait for her to inch closer to him. He understands now that she needs security, and he knows he’ll give it to her. He’ll sit at the midpoint of the string tying them together, and he won’t leave. No, he’ll stay there and he’ll call to her and he’ll make sure she knows that whenever she’s ready to coil her end of the string, he’ll be there to meet her in the middle.

Still, a part of him hopes that maybe this heat will draw her closer to him, will lessen the wait.

“I hope Finn and I have helped her break through that mindset,” Rose is saying, “but either way, she’s staying away from you because she keeps her walls so high. It’s not a reflection of you at all.” Her words are reassuring, if saddening. 

Ben butts in to console Rose. “I get it. I feel awful for her, but I understand.”

“Good,” Rose responds, exhaling. “That’s good.”

“So what does this mean about her heat?” he asks, a bit afraid to breach the topic.

Resolve fills Rose’s voice. “Right, so she says she wants you there.”

Color bursts into Ben’s head. It’s like the storm clouds that have been gathering in his mind have finally parted, and sunlight is filtering through.  _ Omega wants us. She wants this. She wants us to take care of her. Care for Omega. Do it  _ now.

When he refocuses, Rose is still sounding awfully casual. Her words have lit a fire under his ass, so he urges her on. “Rose, as much as I appreciate this, please just tell me what I need to know so I can get to her.”

“Of course,” Rose replies, her voice picking up speed and intensity to match Ben. “She thinks she’s twelve-ish hours away from her heat. I can text you the address. I just need you to be careful with her. If she asks for things- biting, mating, whatever- please hold back. I know this can’t feel good to hear right now, but she doesn’t mean it. From what she’s told me, she’s talkative during her heats.”

The idea of his omega, vocal and loud as he pounds her into the mattress fills his mind and sends blood rushing to his cock. He  _ needs _ to get to her.

“I get it,” Ben says, his leg starting to bounce in anticipation. “Can you just send me the address?”

“Yes,” Rose replies. There’s a second of silence, and then he feels his phone vibrate in his hand. “You can walk there,” she informs him. “It’s right down the road.”

Smiling with newfound confidence, Ben nods. “Thanks, Rose.”

“Call me if you need anything.”

“I will,” he says, gathering up his things and stuffing them in his bag, “I’ll take care of her, I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> as always, back to twitter we go :)


End file.
